NEWS

National Report

BY SUKIE DE LA CROIX

S.C. election lessons

The South Carolina Republican Primary may be over, but the damage inflicted by Gov. George W. Bush's and Senator John McCain's pandering to the far-right wing of the conservative electorate is considerable, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force said Feb. 20.

The candidates' refusal to weigh in on the Confederate flag issue, their snubbing of African-American and

gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgen-

dered voters and their failure to cam-

paign positively and focus on solu-

over

tions have left real questions in the minds of mainstream voters whether either politician is qualified to lead the country, said NGLTF Executive Director Kerry Lobel.

Bradley's wife supports same-sex marriage

Ernestine Bradley, wife of Sen. Bill Bradley, said Feb. 16 that her position on same-sex marriage would differ from that of her husband if she were a private citizen and not the wife of a Democratic presidential candidate, reports THE HOUSTON VOICE.

Bradley suggested that if she was still a professor at Montclair State University in New Jersey, she would support granting gays the right to marry, and added that her husband's opposition to same-sex marriage is in part based on his religious beliefs as well as division over the issue among gay men and lesbians.

Woman charged with killing her intersex baby In Dallas, investigators believe they

have a motive for the murder of a

newborn. The Collin County medical examiner says the three-day-old baby born to Aruna and Ganga Kavili was born with ambiguous genitalia, AP reported. The infant's mother is now charged with capital murder.

Ap also reported that in Indian culture, children born with sexual defor-

mities are called eunuchs. The coroner says the baby had no chance at survival-he died of blunt force trauma to the head, and strangulation.

Court reverses gay partner's award

In Tacoma, Wash., a man who shared the house, business and financial assets with his lover for 28 years cannot inherit his partner's estate, a state appeals court ruled in reversing a judge's decision, reports AP.

Frank Vasquez was denied any of Robert Schwerzler's $230,000 estate because the state's community proper-

www.outlineschicago.com

opposition to the measure, which passed on the second of three readings by a vote of 7 to 3. It covers bias in employment, housing, credit and public accommodations. A final vote is scheduled for March 1.

Study links homophobia to AIDS

THE CONSERVATIVE NEWS reports that the Centers for Disease Control has linked homophobia to an increased risk of infection by HIV, according to a recent CDC report on AIDS among minority men.

The agency's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report Jan. 14, "HIV/AIDS Among Racial/Ethnic Minority Men Who Have Sex with Men (MSM), United States, 19891998," lists homophobia among several "social and economic factors associated with high rates of HIV risk behavior."

ty law only applies to heterosexuals, Denver couples register

the Washington State Court of Appeals Division II ruled. Schwerzler died at age 78 in 1995 without leaving a will, AP said.

Security scare as gay ordinance is discussed Under a dramatic increase in security, a majority of Davenport, Iowa, aldermen moved a law that would give civil-rights protections to gays and bisexuals past its second hurdle, reports THE QUAD CITY TIMES.

The tight security was imposed at the request of aldermen after rumors that a person with a gun was supposed to have attended an earlier meeting at which the same issue was discussed, the paper said. That person was also at the Feb. 16 meeting and spoke in

Attention All

Photographers, Designers & Artists

The Chicago Area Gay & Lesbian Chamber of commerce is holding an open competition for its 2000 Visitor's Guide cover image. The image can be photo, digital, drawing or painting. The image must represent the LesBiGay experience in Chicago. The winning image will be the cover of the Chamber's new 2000 full-color Visitor's Guide Magazine which will be distributed both nationally and internationally. The first run of the guides will be a distribution of 30,000, starting in early May 2000.

will the

Not only will the winner get incredible exposure, but he/she will also receive a free one-year membership, $200 worth of advertising, along with a biography about the artist or the artist's business.

O Submission deadline is March 31, 2000 5pm

Please call or stop by our office for an entry form The Chicago Area Gay & Lesbian Chamber of Commerce 3713 North Halsted, Chicago, IL 60613-3906 773-871-4190 or outreach@GLChamber.org

On Feb. 14, in Denver, 82 couples went to city hall and took advantage of the city's new domestic-partnership registry. The City Council approved the registry late last year; Denver is the 36th city with a partners registry.

Report: GL vote power

The gay, lesbian and bisexual electorate in the U.S. is large and powerful enough to tip the scales in both hotly contested Congressional elections and in close elections in key states such as California, a report released Feb. 14 by the Policy Institute of the National Gay and Lesbian Task

Force reveals. Overall, the GLB vote was 5 percent of the electorate in the 1996 election. In cities of more than half a million inhabitants, 9 percent of voters self-identified as GLB, while in medium-sized cities (50,000 to 500,000 inhabitants) GLB voters

comprised 7 percent of the electorate. "Out and Voting II" may be down-

loaded for free by visiting www.ngltf.org/pub.html or may be purchased for $10 by calling 202-3326483, ext. 3205.

Harris Poll results on 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell'

When asked to choose among three possible policies towards gays in the military, 48% of the public favor allowing gays to serve openly in the military; 18% support allowing gays to serve if they keep their sexuality a secret, 18% favor barring gays, and 16% are undecided.

See www.harrisinteractive.com.

5,000 gather to protest stabbing of gay student

In Tucson, Ariz., a Feb. 13 march protesting the stabbing of a gay man

OUTLINES Feb. 23, 2000 ▼

drew nearly 5,000 people, reports THE ARIZONA DAILY STAR.

The 20-year-old U. of Arizona student was injured in what police called a hate crime; he told those gathered that he refused to be a victim.

Gary Grayson, 37, is being held at the Pima County Jail on a $10,000 bond, charged with attempted murder and two counts of aggravated assault. Police say Grayson made derogatory statements about gays during the attack. He could receive a more severe penalty if convicted under Arizona's hate-crimes statute, the paper said.

ACLU joins student's

suit against in Nevada

In Reno, Nev., the American Civil Liberties Union of Nevada is joining a court battle on behalf of a gay stu-

dent who says Washoe County school officials should have stopped verbal

and physical harassment by classmates, reports Associated Press.

Derek Henkle, now 19 and living in Atlanta, filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Reno making claims of negligence and infliction of emotional distress in seeking damages.

He alleges school officials denied him equal protections because of his sexual orientation and denied him free speech rights by urging him to hide his sexual orientation, AP said.

2 school clubs open gay

While in Orange Unified, the California school board has been united in trying to keep the Gay Straight Alliance from convening at El Modena High, two gay clubs opened at Orange County high schools without the same disruption, reports THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER.

The clubs are at Fountain Valley High School and Los Alamitos High School, the REGISTER reported.

Jewish Reformers may

If church leaders follow the report's recommendations, they would leave in place an unofficial policy that lets individual dioceses decide whether to bless gay marriages, AP said.

Siberian gay man seeks asylum in Canada

A gay Siberian man who entered the U.S. illegally in an attempt to seek asylum in Canada is getting his chance, thanks to help from new friends, reports AP.

Denis Dementiev, whose parents sold a car to finance his flight, hoped to join his sister, an applicant for refugee status in Canada who had resettled there last year.

When Dementiev, aged 20, failed to qualify for a Canadian visa, he entered the U.S. from Mexico in December in hope of making it across the country to Canada, AP said. He was caught and held in an Arizona detention center pending a deportation hearing.

But gay and Jewish groups in Tucson rallied to his defense and raised. enough money to pay Dementiev's $1,500 bond and get him to the Canadian border, where he may legally apply for asylum, Ap reported.

Dementiev said that "about 20 different students at [his] school would beat me, usually in gangs of four or five, almost every day for a period of about three months."

Cell fusion paves way for gays to have kids

Researchers are planning to create the first primate with three parents, paving the way for gay couples to have children who carry both partners' genes, reports THE LONDON TIMES. The research involves creating two embryos and then fusing them to create an individual made up of two types of cell: Such animals are called chimeras.

Gerald Schatten, at the Oregon Regional Primate Research Centre, whose team hopes the first chimeric rhesus monkeys will be born this year, said: "We cannot research these new techniques in people so we need to use a closely related animal.

However, Lee Silver, professor of genetics at Princeton University, believes that the technique will generate huge demand. Creating babies containing the genetic material of two men would involve obtaining eggs, ideally from the same woman, and fertilizing some with sperm from one man and some with sperm from his

pass marriage resolution partner, reports THE TIMES.

The Jewish Reform movement is on the verge of accepting rabbinic officiation at gay and lesbian marriages, according to JERUSALEM REPORT.

Senior members of the Central Conference of American Rabbis told the newspaper they expect a resolution endorsing rabbinic officiation at commitment ceremonies between gay and lesbian Jews to pass at the movement's March 29 conference.

The resulting embryos would then be treated with chemicals designed to stick them together. The resulting chimera, brought to term in a surrogate mother, would have three parents. Every cell would have half its genes from the mother, but half the genes would be from one man and half from the other, the paper said. The process could also be adapted for two women, the TIMES noted.

Currently, the Reconstructionist Irish gay group loses

movement is the only one which allows its rabbis to officiate at samegender ceremonies, the REPORT said.

Episcopalians back off on marriage issue

An Episcopal Church commission has declined to take a position on same-sex unions, reports AP. Page 12

In New York, a federal jury found that New York City did not violate the First Amendment rights of a gay Irish group that has tried to march in the St. Patrick's Day parade for a decade, reports Associated Press.

The Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization tried to prove that the city unconstitutionally blocked.